Health Suggestions for Truckers: Hydration

There is so much advice about being healthy. Eat this, not that. Eat meat, don’t eat meat, add fats but only a certain kind. Eggs are good, eggs are bad. Coffee is good, coffee is bad. Drink this amount of water, walk this number of steps. It is exhausting to know what is best, and each individual is different. At Roane, we believe healthy, happy truckers make the best drivers on the road. Yet, how do you weed through insurmountable piles of wellness advice? How do you work to maintain a healthy lifestyle when you are on the road for 8+ hours a day? We have some suggestions and we want to bring each of these to you.
Starting with hydration.

Finding What Works

Truck driving has been touted as one of the least healthy jobs. Hours of sitting and being on the road make it more than easy to establish unhealthy habits. Truck stops are laden with fast, fried food, and options for excessive caffeine and sugar. Instead of being another unhealthy statistic, wellness can be maintained while on the road. Our bodies are constantly attempting to achieve equilibrium and maintaining health is the same way. Working out too much can cause problems, and living a sedentary life has issues. Finding a balance to offset the hours of sitting does not have to be impossible.

Health Suggestion for Truckers: Hydration

One of the easiest ways to add a step toward health into your routine, is to drink more water. The United States has been repeatedly classified as one of the most dehydrated general populations, although this is starting to shift. If we lose even 1% of hydration in our bodies, it can affect us by causing fatigue, dizziness, concentration, muscle cramps, and more, at times even effecting cardiovascular health. As a tractor-trailer driver, this is not optimal for being on the road. Simply by keeping a reusable bottle of water next to you on the drive ensures that you will drink it, as it is accessible. If plain water is difficult to switch to, try adding a slice of lemon, or lemon juice. Try switching to green tea in the afternoon, as this can help with dehydration and green tea has antioxidant properties. There are a lot of formulas for trying to guess as to how much water you need per day, however, it has recently been shown that the honest way to tell is to check the color of your urine. Yep, that’s the hard-fast way to tell if you are hydrated. You want your urine to be a light-yellow color and to have a significant amount of it. You can even find an app that reminds you to drink water, if you’re into technology. Also, note that you can get water from eating fruits and vegetables as well (watermelon has the highest concentration of water, as you might have guessed).

Roane Transportation cares about their employees. We have been recommended and are a favorite company in the trucking industry. Our goal is to support an environment of healthy, happy, and safe truck drivers. If you are interested in applying for a career with us, the requirements, benefits, and more can be found by clicking HERE. Additional information and tips for drivers can be found on our website.